A fraudster has been sentenced to three years in prison and fined BD3,000 after he tried to buy a luxury car from a dealership using stolen credit cards from various countries.
The 36-year-old Egyptian, identified as a ‘banking investor’ in official documents, was convicted of fraud by the High Criminal Court yesterday.
He reportedly tried to buy a BMW car, belonging to the Series 3 line, with a price tag of BD25,000, insisting on paying for it through the seller’s online payment platform.
The defendant was given a special link and login details following which he used cards issued in Japan, Australia, Chile, Hong Kong, Ecuador and Singapore, without their owners’ consent.
He eventually managed to pay more than BD14,000 over 18 transactions using the stolen bank cards, entering in the victims’ card numbers, expiry dates and more.
His plan was, however, thwarted when suspicious transactions were flagged and reported to the Public Prosecution by an employee at the payment processor, Credimax.
The fraud specialist uncovered dubious payments worth more than BD12,000, deposited from multiple accounts, including foreign ones, into the same electronic platform owned by the car dealership. She traced all transactions to a single source, which turned out to be the Egyptian defendant, and contacted the dealership to question them about the sale.
She informed them that the money was being withheld due to suspicions of fraudulent activity, and following appeals from the actual owners of the cards.
“The car company, meanwhile, informed the defendant that they had not received the rest of the money and asked him to pay it in cash,” the court said in its verdict.
“He said he didn’t have it, and asked if he could take the car with the amount he had already paid. His request was denied and he was never given the car.”
Credimax contacted several banks that issued the cards, and only one of them responded, confirming that it was stolen and belonged to someone else.
A report was then sent to the General Directorate of Anti-Corruption and Economic and Electronic Security, which launched an investigation leading to the identification and arrest of the suspect.
A detective involved in the case told the court that several unscrupulous individuals were entering Bahrain posing as ‘investors’ with the sole intention of laundering illicit funds.
“Similar incidents have been reported to us, where individuals arrive in Bahrain claiming to be investors but actually possess illegitimate funds,” the detective said.
“Their goal is make their money appear clean by taking advantage of Bahraini online payment platforms to purchase luxury goods using stolen cards.
“The defendant employed the same fraudulent method to convert the stolen card amounts into real-world assets.”
However, his scheme ultimately failed.
An inspection of his phone revealed WhatsApp conversations and photographs of bank cards belonging to individuals he stole from, the GDN earlier reported.
Judges found him guilty of unauthorised use of others’ electronic signatures, by utilising their one-time password (OTP) – used to validate card payments – for malicious ends.
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